Model Railroading > HO Kato SD40 handrails

Hi gang,
On my bench is a Kato Conrail SD40 (originally painted CR 6345, I think) that I'm turning into an SD40-2E Conrail 6981. I didn't realize until late in the project that the Kato handrails are on the thick side. I'm going to go with them for now, but wonder if other folks have retrofitted more modern handrails onto these units? If so, how? Which brand of handrails worked for you? Looks like some of the molded holes in the shell are on the large side for anything that would be needed today; I'm thinking it would be difficult to fill and re-drill all of those holes...

Thanks,
-Alex

Here is a Kato SD40 I reworked using Smokey Valley stanchions. If I remember correctly, they fit loosely in the existing holes. A dab of CA adhesive holds them tight.

Dennis

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Alex,

I had a similar problem with a Kato GP35 I painted a few years back. After it was done I was not happy with the handrails but there was no way I was going to fill all the holes and ruin my paint job.

I ended up using the Kato stanchions, I cut the railings from the stanchions then drilled them out to fit .015" wire and bent new railings from brass wire. The trick to drilling the stanchions is mark both sides with a sharp pin and drill into the stanchions from both sides.

I was quite happy with the end result, the Kato stanchions are actually not bad at all.

On my other Kato models I filled the stanchion holes before painting and drilled new ones to fit Smokey Valley stanchions.

Andrew C

Trying to remember where I saw a person made a jig to lay the Kato stanchion down sideways in and drill a hole through it to run handrail wire. Worked and looked great.

RailThunder Wrote:
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> Trying to remember where I saw a person made a jig
> to lay the Kato stanchion down sideways in and
> drill a hole through it to run handrail wire.
> Worked and looked great.

I seem to remember a magazine article where the guy used used a dremel tool in a drill press like rig to drill out Kato handrail stanchions.
Mounted the stanchions in a small vice that was mounted to a piece of stell so it was stable and square.
He could do a stanchion in about a minue including set up. And each hole was spot on too.

With reference to the SV stanchions, they look very good. I think that SV must have improved their masters. I thought some of them in the past were getting kind of rough but in the photo from CNW, they look very nice.

Rick

I agree with the re-drill option. Sounds tedious, but with an OptiVisor and good lighting it's not bad, and fulfilling too

Posted from Android

Re drilling the existing stanchions sounds like the best trade off. Thanks guys! Would not have thought of that.

Posted from iPhone